


Toil and Trouble

by Bootsncatz (bootsncatz)



Series: When We Were Young [2]
Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Halloween, I PROMISE IT MAKES SENSE, Nicole also stabs a robot spider, Nicole experiences Halloween for the first time, Nicole got freaked out by Paddington bear, Peter Pan AU, When We Were Young Universe, Wynonna and Rachel don't make it easy, little bit of something for everyone, puppy Nicole, some sexy stuff in here too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:35:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27067258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bootsncatz/pseuds/Bootsncatz
Summary: Nicole learns what a modern Halloween celebration looks like with the help of Rachel and Wynonna. Except...maybe they take it a little too far.Part of the When We Were Young universe. Pan Puppy Nicole learns something new every day.
Relationships: Waverly Earp/Nicole Haught, Xavier Dolls/Wynonna Earp
Series: When We Were Young [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1975483
Comments: 27
Kudos: 187





	Toil and Trouble

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! Welcome back. I couldn't stay out of this universe for too long as you can see. I really wanted to see Nicole discovering more of the modern world so...here we are. 
> 
> Thanks to Lucky for beta-ing.
> 
> Happy Spooky Season!

The autumn wind rattled the old tree in front of the Homestead. Waverly looked up at the golden leaves that clung to the branches above her head, still bright like the dying ashes of a fire. She rested her hands on the rickety porch rail and looked out at the property. 

It had only been a month or so since they got back from Neverland, and only a few weeks since they decided the Homestead was the only viable option for their living situation. She glanced down at her watch. It was time to go to the wholesale liquor place and talk about the ridiculous amount they were trying to charge her for whiskey. She was sure they just saw Perry’s name on the “owner” sheet and jacked up the price, but that would not do. Thankfully they were local and Waverly was ready to (respectfully) kick some ass.

The rail was rough under her hands but she just gripped it tighter as she looked out at the cloud of dust in the distance from a car driving up the road. As it got closer she noticed it was Dolls’ truck and perked up. Waverly saw that Nicole was in the passenger seat like she hoped, and smiled. 

As they pulled up to the front of the Homestead, Nicole jumped out of the car before it even fully stopped. Her eyes were bright and arms outspread in excitement.

“Waves! Look!” Nicole put her hands on her hips and pushed them forward with a smile. Slung low on her hips was a toolbelt, leather still stiff and tags hanging off the side. Waverly laughed as Nicole walked up the steps of the Homestead, opening all the little pouches on the belt and sticking her hand through the various loops like a kid with a new toy. “Dolls said that you would love it.”

Waverly shot a look over at Dolls, the very slightest hint of a smile on his face, as he pulled some lumber out of the back of his truck.

“I do love it,” Waverly’s smile turned to a smirk as she moved her hands from the rail to hold Nicole. As she pulled her hands away she felt a sharp pain in her palm and instinctively pulled her hand to her chest with a hiss of pain.

Nicole’s brow furrowed and she reached for Waverly’s hand. “Can I see?”

“I got a splinter,” Waverly pouted as she looked down at the tiny little piece of wood sticking into the skin of her palm. 

“I got it, Little Bird.” Nicole cradled Waverly’s hand and leaned back against the railing. Waverly was perfectly capable of getting out her own splinter and her pride flared for a moment, but the loving look on Nicole’s face stopped the complaint in her throat. Nicole placed a soft kiss just beside the splinter as she pulled out a brand new pocket knife. It was gold and the handle was shaped like a naked woman, breasts disproportionately large. She pulled out the little tweezers and Waverly frowned.

“Where did that come from?” Waverly asked.

“Wynonna gave it to me,” Nicole said, distracted.

“Of course,” Waverly said.

She watched as Nicole carefully extracted the splinter from her skin, tossing the little offender off the side of the rail and pulling Waverly between her legs. 

“All better,” Nicole wrapped her arms around Waerly’s waist and kissed her softly. 

Waverly sighed into the kiss, hands smoothing up Nicole’s flannel clad arms. One of the new purchases they had made when the weather started to get colder. Waverly pulled away with a wide smile, playing with the ends of Nicole’s hair that rested along her jaw. The usual green beanie on her head had been replaced with a crimson one that really set off Nicole’s deep brown eyes and-

She cleared her throat and licked her lips. She was getting distracted. It was easy to do with the way that Nicole looked at her like she was her entire universe.

“Wanna go to the liquor store with me?” Waverly asked, biting her bottom lip. Really she just wanted to drag Nicole back upstairs with her for a proper thank you for getting rid of her splinter, but she had to play a responsible adult today. 

“I’ll go anywhere with you,” Nicole smiled. 

The fluttering in Waverly’s heart felt like it hadn’t calmed down since they came back. Without the oppressive threat of inevitable doom hanging over their heads, everything felt light and easy, like love was just floating through the air around them. Even if Waverly was a little overwhelmed with taking over Shorty’s and Wynonna being pregnant and a teenager to take care of. 

Plus Nicole was just _Nicole_. Sweet, affectionate, energetic Nicole. So helpful but also so distracting. It was easy to forget that there was a world outside of their little bubble sometimes, but Waverly could feel a longing for normalcy tugging at her. Not that anything could be normal after everything they’d just gone through. 

“I like it when you’re sappy,” Waverly confessed. “Makes me feel like a princess or something. But one of the badass ones like Olga of Kiev or something.”

“God, how do the two of you get anything done,” Wynonna groaned as she walked out onto the porch.

Waverly blushed as she stood up a little and turned to look at her sister. Nicole just wrapped her arms around her from behind and rested her chin on her shoulder. Wynonna was trying to balance a tub of sour cream on her five month pregnancy belly but was failing. Waverly frowned as she watched her stick a spoon in the tub and take a giant bite. 

“Wynonna,” Waverly’s voice was inquisitive, brow furrowing. 

“Don’t say anything,” Wynonna said, with a shake of her head. “I can’t explain it but this kid is practically using my uterus as a megaphone and screaming for it. I’m eating it. Plus, I was talking about how gross you two were, don’t turn this back on me.”

Waverly rolled her eyes, but Wynonna was right. She had to get to the wholesale place and then back over to Shorty’s to sign for some deliveries. 

“We were just leaving, Wynonna,” Waverly said. She tapped Nicole’s thigh as she kissed her cheek then left the comfort of her arms. “Let’s go, cutie. Leave your tool belt here.”

Nicole quickly pulled the tool belt off and Wynonna gestured towards it. 

“Here, I’ll just take this to the bedroom for you,” Wynonna said, with a crinkled nose. 

Waverly scoffed. “Why would you put it in the bedroom?”

“You’re gay. I assumed this was sexual.”

“You’re gay too!”

“Precisely.”

“Just set it where I usually put Waverly,” Nicole said, patting at the sword on her back. Waverly couldn’t convince Nicole to stop carrying that thing around. She said she wanted to be sure that there wasn’t a threat anymore before even considering it. Although it did get its fair share of looks around town.

With a final wave back at Wynonna, they went to Waverly’s Jeep and headed towards town. 

***

The tiny main street of Purgatory gave way to old warehouses once they crossed the train tracks. When Waverly was younger, they had tried to expand the main street part of town but it only took a few years for it to die again, leaving only the shells of buildings. There were still a couple of places in there, like the liquor warehouse, but most were boarded up. Waverly even heard a rumor about a Purgatory roller derby league starting up in the maze of empty buildings.

She pulled the Jeep into the parking lot of the wholesaler, and parked. Taking a deep breath, Waverly gave herself a silent pep talk as she got out of the car and went around to where Nicole was looking at the store next door. 

Waverly smiled up at her and puckered her lips. “Kiss for luck?”

Nicole just hummed, still staring at the store next door. Waverly huffed, annoyed at being ignored, and looked at whatever had Nicole captivated.

A vinyl banner hung over the old sign of the toy store that used to be there, an eye-burning orange color with a clip art ghost on one side. “Spooky Halloween Store” was printed in a font she assumed was supposed to be ominous. 

“What’s that?” Nicole said, distracted by the tube person decoration that looked like a ghost. 

“It’s a Halloween store. Do you remember Halloween?” Waverly asked, with an interested cock of her head. Learning more about what Nicole did and didn’t remember had been enlightening.

“No,” Nicole frowned and shook her head. “It’s a holiday? Celebrating what?”

“Yeah. And it’s not really celebrating anything anymore,” Waverly said. “It has its origins with the Ancient Celts and Samhain celebrating the end of growing season, but these days it’s been bastardized by commercialism, so now it’s a day where people dress up in costumes and act scary and pass out candy and fun stuff like that.” Waverly took a deep breath after her rant as she looked up at Nicole. Brown eyes just blinked back at her quizzically. “It’s basically just scary stuff. Ghosts, vampires, werewolves. Edgar Allen Poe.”

Nicole’s forehead wrinkled with more questions and Waverly brushed her thumb over it. 

“I’m gonna go look in there,” Nicole said, face relaxing under Waverly’s touch. “While you’re in there.”

“Okay,” Waverly said cheerily.. “Don’t get into any trouble.”

She lifted herself on her toes and kissed Nicole’s cheek before heading into the store. 

She found her contact in the main office, neon liquor signs hanging on every available wallspace and casting the room in an odd light.

“Buster?” Waverly asked, putting on her “Friendliest Person in Purgatory” smile and wave routine. The man at the counter had to be about a hundred years old, mostly skin and bones and a Jack Daniels baseball hat squashed down almost over his eyes, two bushy white eyebrows poking out from the brim. “Hi, I’m Waverly, the new owner of Shorty’s.”

Buster grunted. 

“Well, I just came in to talk about the prices on this recent order.” Waverly managed to make her smile wider.

Buster grunted again and Waverly felt her smile strain just slightly. 

“I noticed that you upped the price by twelve percent after the ownership turned over, and I just wanted to inquire as to why,” Waverly said, words sickly sweet. 

Buster, predictably, grunted.

Waverly took a deep breath. The steady buzz of the neon was interrupted by the sound of a siren coming down the street. Waverly frowned, a little thrown off by the sound. It wasn’t common here in Purgatory, even on the outskirts of town. Crime hardly seemed to run at a siren pace these days. It was even more jarring that it sounded like they had pulled into the same parking lot. 

She shook her head, smile still in place. “Sorry, got a little distracted by the noise,” Waverly chuckled. “So, anyways, can you tell me why-”

_“Come out with your hands up!”_

Waverly felt a very specific kind of dread fill her stomach, like she knew that this chaos had more to do with her than she would like.

_”Put the sword down!”_

“Oh god,” Waverly squeaked. She put her smile back on quickly despite her panic. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

She quickly turned around and bolted back out the door where, of course, Nicole was pressed face first against a cop car, handcuffs around her wrists. Nedley was picking up her sword off the parking lot asphalt and examining it as someone else put her into the back of a car. Waverly quickly ran over to Nedley with a nervous smile.

“Hi, Sheriff,” Waverly said. “I’m- I think there might be a mistake.”

Nedley sighed and looked back at the car where Nicole’s face was pressed against the tinted glass.

“She belongs to you, don’t she?” Nedley said, looking more tired than ever. 

Waverly blushed. “I mean, she doesn’t _belong_ to anybody-”

“Is this or is this not your partner?” Nedley huffed, cheeks red.

“Yes,” Waverly said.

“Well, she jus’ went into this store and stabbed an animatronic spider,” Nedley said.

Waverly blinked at him. “A...what?”

“Now, I do kinda get it. That thing is big’n hairy and makes all kinda noises, but you can’t just go around stabbin’ things willy nilly,” Nedley said, gesturing towards the store. “People aren’t gonna like that.”

“I’m sorry, Nedley, she’s just-” Waverly looked back at the police car and back at the sword. “You know she’s-”

Nedley handed the sword to Waverly and took the hat off of his head. “After she popped up in the hospital, I looked ‘er up for next’a kin. All that. It’s like she came outta nowhere. No birth certificate. Nothing. And that kinda paperwork is annoying to file because then we usually have to do an investigation.” 

Waverly hoped Nedley couldn’t see the panic on her face. She didn’t know how, but she was sure Nicole would be discovered as some kind of mythical creature and there would be too many questions to answer. 

“Sheriff Nedley,” Waverly made her eyes big and fluttered her eyelashes innocently, giving him her most dazzling smile. “I know it seems odd but Nicole was um-” She looked over at Nicole who still looked confused. “-her parents raised her off the grid. A couple of hippies, you know? Like Joaquin and River Phoenix’s parents.”

“Hippies?” Nedley’s mustaches seemed to twitch in annoyance and he looked back at Nicole who had her forehead pressed directly against the glass, distorting her face a little as she tried to look out of the window. He turned back around, hands on his duty belt. “With Wynonna pregnant, I’m assumin’ ya’ll like kids.”

Waverly figured that was quite the assumption to make, especially with Wynonna involved, but just smiled politely back. “We _so_ do.”

“Well, I’ve seen Nicole out an’ ‘bout around town, you know. She always seemed respectful and helpful-”

“She is!”

“And I’m assumin’ this hooligan doesn’t have a record-”

“Not at all.”

Nedley gruffed. “This is a simple vandalism charge. Usually jus’ means community service. And, I know the Purgatory Youth Center is still looking for a volunteer to put together the annual haunted house fundraiser for the kids. Just a basic haunted house. The department has a small budget for it but Lonnie refuses to do it this year.”

“Yes, we’ll do it,” Waverly said, seizing the chance to just finish this whole mess. “We’ll do whatever.”

“Alrigh’ then. The folks at the store’ll give you a discount if you tell ‘em why you’re doing it. They’ll charge it to the department too,” he nodded, turning around and giving his officer a gesture to get Nicole out of the car. Waverly let out a sigh of relief as she waited for Nicole to get the handcuffs off. Nedley walked away as Nicole went up to Waverly, and she fixed her with a hard look.

“You are in so much trouble,” Waverly hissed, grabbing her by the elbow and walking her over to the Jeep. “You are _so_ lucky you’re a white woman and in a small town where your girlfriend knows everyone. This is why you can’t just carry your sword around everywhere!”

“I’m sorry! I’d never seen anything like it before,” Nicole said. “It was _giant_ and moved. I thought it was trying to attack me!” 

“I should have never let you go in there without me,” Waverly sighed. “Get in the car while I finish what I have to do.” Nicole hung her head like a scolded puppy and climbed into the Jeep, taking the sword from Waverly who just shook her head at her girlfriend. As she slammed the door, she said, “And on the way home, I’m going to tell you all about white privilege, baby.”

***

After Waverly talked Buster into lowering the price again (“friends and family discount” he said) they drove back to the Homestead. Waverly had a long talk with Nicole on the way back. Nicole’s eyes were a little glazed over and she looked a little overwhelmed. It really was for the best though. Better she learn how the world was early before it slapped her upside the head, unexpectedly. 

Dolls was out at the barn, Waverly could hear the hammering. They decided to start the renovations there since that’s where he and Wynonna would stay when the baby came along. Nicole was determined to help too, so hopefully helping Dolls with the barn meant things might go faster on the house. At night when Waverly cuddled up into Nicole’s side, she noticed her reading articles on home improvement, which was adorable. Nicole picked up on things particularly fast, so Waverly had all the confidence in the world she would be really handy soon. 

As soon as they stepped inside, Wynonna grinned smugly, pointing at Nicole from her place on the couch where she was watching trashy tv. “You got arrested.”

Waverly sighed and Nicole just looked guilty. 

“I stabbed a giant mutant spider.”

“ _What_?”

“It was one of the animatronic ones,” Waverly sighed. “At the Halloween store.”

Wynonna gasped and sat up. “Are those finally open?”

“Yeah,” Waverly frowned.

“Oh fuck yeah!” Rachel yelled behind Waverly. She jumped in surprise, hand to her chest as she turned to look at the girl. 

“Jeez-! No cursing,” Waverly said on instinct.

“Why?” Rachel and Wynonna said simultaneously. 

Waverly rolled her eyes. “Nevermind.”

“Can we go back to the store?” Wynonna said. “There’s things I need.”

“I have to go into town anyways I guess,” Waverly sighed. “Actually, I need you to help Nicole with something.”

Wynonna frowned suspiciously. “What is it?”

“In order to get Nicole out of being booked, I told Nedley we’d do a haunted house,” Waverly said. “A charity thing for her community service or whatever.”

Wynonna actually looked interested, eyebrows quirking up a little. “You want us to make a...haunted house...for children?”

“Yes,” Waverly sighed. “It doesn’t have to be big. Please-”

“Absolutely,” Wynonna said, standing up from the couch. “Rachel, you’re in on this, right?”

“Definitely.” Rachel and Wynonna high fived. Their newfound closeness gave Waverly a mix of emotions. Their chaos was perfectly complementary to one another and it was great they both had someone they got along with so well, but Waverly couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. It was dumb, really, but Waverly had sort of just gotten her sister back and now she felt just a little replaced. Not that she could really say anything when she had very much been taking as much alone time with Nicole as possible.

Still, she could be a little jealous.

“What’s our budget look like?” Wynonna said, hand rubbing her protruding belly.

“Nedley said they’ll just bill the department,” Waverly shrugged. “Just don’t go overboard, okay?”

“Fine,” Wynonna said. “This is gonna be awesome.”

Waverly had a feeling it was going to be a little bit of a mess. But hopefully the best kind. She didn’t have time to really oversee this whole thing while she was dealing with Shorty’s, so Waverly figured it was just better to just let these three run with it. 

“This is going to be the best Halloween ever.” Rachel did a little jig in excitement. “I’m glad we came to Purgatory in time for Halloween.”

“We can watch some scary movies tonight too,” Wynonna smiled. “They’ve gotten way more gross since you’ve seen them.”

“Gnarly.” Rachel smiled brighter.

“And to think Nic here has never seen a scary movie,” Wynonna said, hand on Nicole’s shoulder and a terrifying smile on her face.

“Please, nothing too intense,” Waverly said. “I don’t want to deal with answering questions all night like I did when you watched Paddington.”

“How was I supposed to know that little CGI bear would freak Nicole out so much,” Wynonna argued.

Nicole just shook her head slowly, her face ashen. “It’s just not right.”

“We’ll take it slow.” Wynonna rolled her eyes and shared a look with Rachel. Waverly, just resigned herself to whatever trouble she was getting herself into. 

“Alright, ready to go?” Waverly said. The sentence wasn’t even out of Waverly’s mouth when Rachel ran towards the Jeep and dived into the back.

***

Waverly’s arms sagged under the weight of the box of paperwork she’d dragged from the Jeep and up the Homestead steps. It was years worth of receipts and order forms that she supposed made some sort of sense, but not to her. 

After dropping Nicole, Wynonna, and Rachel off at the Halloween store, Waverly went down to the closet that Gus called an office. Once Shae and Rachel (eventually...hopefully) moved out of the upstairs apartment Waverly would turn that into a proper office, but for now she would just bring the box home to make some sense of it. She held the box up against the side of the Homestead, pressing her hip against it to keep it up as she fumbled with her keys. There was no use knocking, she could hear the loud movie blaring from the living room and there was no way they’d hear her. They had gotten a ride home from Dolls while Waverly was working and had started without her.

The lock finally clicked open and she clutched the box to her chest as she walked in and kicked the door shut behind her. Waverly followed the smell of popcorn and something burnt, into the kitchen to set down the box. She gazed into the dark living room, the light from the tv casting harsh shadows around the room. 

Rachel was basically on top of the television she was so close to the screen. Nicole was leaning against the bottom of the couch, eyes fixated on the screen and Wynonna was sprawled out on the couch. 

There was a blood curdling scream on the tv and Rachel jumped while Nicole leaned in a little closer. Waverly looked just in time to see someone’s face graphically ripped off of their skull.

“Wynonna!” Waverly gasped. “I said nothing too intense!”

Wynonna didn’t even look shocked that Waverly was standing there. “It’s not! We worked up to it. We started with Jennifer’s Body.”

“God,” Waverly put her hand on her forehead, just imagining Nicole being up for hours going down an internet spiral as she googled all the questions she had after the movie. She could only imagine what sort of gory things Nicole would show Waverly in the morning. “Rachel definitely shouldn’t be watching this.”

“I’m technically forty-nine years old, you know. I’m older than all of you,” Rachel said.

Nicole snorted. “Not me. I’m technically a hundred and -” Nicole scrunched up her nose in thought before she shrugged and just seemingly gave up and turned back to the screen just as someone else died a terrible death. Waverly went over and kissed Nicole on the cheek.

“I’m going to put my pajamas on,” Waverly whispered as Nicole grabbed her around the wrist.

“But you’ll come back?” Nicole asked.

“Of course,” Waverly smiled, her heart melting at the look in Nicole’s eyes. Pure love. As if Waverly could stay away from their magnetic pull that long. She tapped Nicole’s lips with her finger affectionately before going up to their room. She changed into her cozy pajamas and pulled Nicole’s sweatshirt off of a chair, slipping it on as she headed back down the stairs. 

Nicole had fluffed a pillow behind her back and pulled a blanket up to her lap, legs spread and waiting for Waverly to fill the space. Waverly slipped easily between Nicole’s legs, back settling against her front as Nicole’s arm wrapped around her. She brought the blanket around them and Nicole dropped a soft kiss onto Waverly’s shoulder.

Waverly was just warming completely into Nicole’s body when someone screamed and a head exploded.

“Radical,” Rachel whispered in awe.

“This movie is terrible,” Waverly frowned. 

“Wanna go upstairs instead, Little Bird?” Nicole said, voice soft and rumbling in her chest. Waverly leaned further back into her and let out a long sigh. 

“I just got down here,” Waverly said, exhaustion still making her limbs heavy. “We can just watch some of the movie. How did the shopping go?”

“Good,” Nicole said. Her hands skirted around to Waverly’s back and her thumbs dug into the muscles at the base of Waverly’s back. She groaned softly, head tipping back.

“Gross,” Wynonna said.

“She’s just rubbing my back, Wynonna,” Waverly said. Nicole’s strong hands kneaded at her back and Waverly could care less what Wynonna thought was happening under the blanket. The exhaustion of the day finally washed over her and Waverly felt consciousness slowly slip from her at the comfort of Nicole’s body wrapped around her own.

When she awoke a while later, gone was the screaming of the movie, replaced with the gentle crackling of the fireplace. Nicole’s arms were still around her, she could tell by the soft smell of vanilla and the outdoors. Waverly cuddled into her chest, realizing she was sitting sideways on her lap.

She adjusted a little bit on Nicole’s lap and let her eyes open a little. All she could see was Nicole’s shirt, typical Henley, black this time, that was a little threadbare around the collar. Waverly brushed her fingers over the soft material around her neck.

“You awake, Little Bird?” Nicole whispered. 

Waverly looked up at Nicole who leaned down and kissed her sweetly. She smiled into the kiss, hand cupping the back of Nicole’s head.

“You fell asleep during the movie,” Nicole said as she kissed the end of Waverly’s nose. “It was just getting to the good part.”

“Your hands put me to sleep,” Waverly said with a small flush, just thinking all the other things Nicole’s hands had done. She pressed her face into Nicole’s neck and breathed her in, fingers playing with her short red locks.

Nicole hummed and brushed some hair behind Waverly’s ear. They were still very much in their ‘can’t keep their hands off each other’ stage of the relationship, but unfortunately with the recent acquisition of Shorty’s, Waverly had been either busy or exhausted and she hadn’t touched Nicole like that in a week, which felt like a lifetime. Waverly suddenly wasn’t sleepy anymore and she brought Nicole’s face back to her own and kissed her.

“My hands?” Nicole smiled against Waverly’s lips and she smiled, fingers trailing down Nicole’s jaw as she kissed her again.

“Your hands,” Waverly confirmed, voice low and suggestive. “Your hands do a lot of things to me.” Waverly kept kissing Nicole softly between sentences. “They’re strong.” Waverly smiled into the kiss. “Sure.” She slipped her tongue teasingly along Nicole’s lips as she kissed her. “Really good at finding things.”

“These hands?” Nicole smirked, the hand that was along Waverly’s cheek drifting down her neck as she caught on to what was happening.

“Mhm,” Waverly said, as she kissed lightly down Nicole’s jaw. Nicole’s fingers trailed down between Waverly’s breasts and over her stomach. Waverly nipped at the hinge of Nicole’s jaw as she squeezed at Waverly’s hip and traveled down to her knee. Shifting on top of Nicole, Waverly let her knees fall open, the heat between her legs almost unbearable.

Nicole moved her head so that she could kiss Waverly properly, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth as her hand inched up the inside of Waverly’s thigh over her sweatpants. As her fingers ghosted up the seam of her pants, Waverly shivered. Nicole’s hand slipped easily down the front of Waverly’s sweatpants and she sighed, a little embarrassed at how wet she already was.

“Everyone’s in bed, right?” Waverly gasped, as Nicole’s fingers carded through the curls between her thighs. Even if the answer was ‘no’ Waverly wasn’t sure she could wait to go upstairs anyways. 

“Yeah,” Nicole said, long fingers finding the source of Waverly’s wetness. Waverly pressed against Nicole’s front, grasping onto the side of Nicole’s neck as she kissed her. Nicole gathered her come on her fingers and slipped them up to her clit, moving them in wide luxurious circles. 

Waverly bit her lip to hold back a moan, feet bracing themselves on the arm of the leather armchair, warmed by the fire and sliding beneath her heels as she pressed her hips towards Nicole’s hands.

“Baby,” Waverly whispered against Nicole’s lips. The pleasure knotted low in her spine, warm and tight as it built. 

Nicole hushed her softly and Waverly tugged on her hair, pulling Nicole’s lips against her own so that she could moan into her mouth. When Nicole’s fingers started working faster and Waverly could hear how wet she was, she shuddered.

“I’m close,” Waverly whispered, brow furrowed. She slipped her hand up her shirt and palmed at her own breast, just needing that little bit more to put her over the edge. Nicole ducked her head and sucked harshly at Waverly’s pulsepoint, the tight tension in her back exploding. Waverly moaned loudly and she bit at her own lip trying to stifle it, but she knew it was too late.

She turned her head and captured Nicole’s lips again, kisses a little desperate and sloppy as Nicole slowly brought her down from her high. Waverly groaned, hips jumping with sensitivity and she grabbed Nicole’s wrist to cease her movements.

“Just give me a few minutes,” Waverly smiled, satisfied.

Nicole smiled as she pulled her hand from Waverly’s pants. “Sorry,” she whispered, peppering soft kisses over the bridge of Waverly’s nose. She brought her fingers to her mouth and as she did, Waverly saw the fire reflect off the wet come on her fingers. Waverly watched as Nicole’s tongue ran along her own fingers and was ready to rip Nicole’s clothes off right here. But it was too risky.

“Let’s go upstairs,” Waverly said, eyes on Nicole’s lips. Hazel eyes flickered back up to brown. “Now.”

“Anything, Little Bird,” Nicole smiled. She set her phone on Waverly’s stomach and shoved her arms under her knees, moving to stand up and hold her bridal style. “Look at my phone, I looked up a new thing I want to try.”

Waverly smirked, looping one arm behind her neck and the other picking up the phone. “Then let’s hurry up and get upstairs, baby.”

***

Nicole’s “Things to Do to Waverly” list really was something. Waverly kept thinking about number thirty-three as she counted the liquor bottles behind the Shorty’s bar for inventory. The little smile on her face couldn’t be wiped away. Especially when she walked and felt the slight burn and stretch in the muscles of her thighs. 

Waverly just kept thinking about the deck of cards she had found and how they could be used to randomly choose something new from the list tonight. 

She had set out the Halloween costume she’d put together for Nicole that morning before she went to Shorty’s, a checkered shirt and vest along with a fancy cowboy hat that Waverly had found in the attic. The jackpot was an old trunk of clothes she found in the basement from the brief time Curtis thought of trying to do an OK Corral dramatic recreation. It only took one night for Champ to shoot someone with the BB gun, and he never tried again. But at least now Waverly had cowboy boots, chaps and leather holsters for Nicole to wear for Halloween. 

Waverly had just changed into her costume since she was going to go home early. Today was the first day of Nicole, Wynonna and Rachel’s kiddie haunted house. She still hadn’t seen any of it, they’d all been very secretive about it and Waverly had been too busy to be worried. It would be impossible for them to mess up anyways, especially with the way that they’d all been so excited about it. 

Nicole had really gotten into Halloween. They all watched Halloween movies every night and Wynonna and Rachel kept leaving creepy things behind for Waverly to find. Mostly fake bloody fingers. Sometimes toes. Nicole even sewed a cute little unicorn stuffed animal for the baby that was wearing a black dress with bat wings. Nicole was surprisingly good at sewing, but Waverly figured she shouldn’t be surprised when she patched her own clothes when she was in Neverland. 

Waverly smoothed out the short green skirt of her sleeveless dress, leaning back a little against the bar until the wire from her fake pixie wings poked into her back. She grumbled a little and readjusted the strap of the wing around her shoulder before setting her clipboard aside. All she had to do was sign the stack of POs waiting for her in the basement and she could go.

Waverly ran a hand through her waves and started towards the basement when Nedley practically burst into the bar, eyes wild. As soon as they landed on her, he bolted for her.

“What did you do?” Nedley said, face red and blotchy under his mustache. “You didn’t leave Wynonna in charge of the haunted house, did you?”

Waverly frowned and shook her head, worry icing her veins. “She was helping Nicole but-. Is everything okay?”

Nedley’s nervous hands tightened and loosened on his belt. “We gotta shut it down. Come with me, pregnant Wynonna is extra hard to deal with.”

“Is everyone okay though?” Waverly asked again, already heading towards the exit. 

“No injuries,” Nedley said as they walked outside. He opened the door of his cruiser as Waverly got in her Jeep. “But I ‘ave the feeling there are going to be some emotional scars.”

***

Waverly knew something was wrong as soon as she pulled up to the Homestead. They had built a little haunted maze in the field off to the side of the Homestead, foam and wooden headstones set up in front of it like a graveyard, skeletal hands reaching out of the earth. There were already a couple of dozen cars parked on the side of the road, a few unsuspecting parents who somehow hadn’t seen the crying children off to the side or just wanted to traumatize their kids walking towards the entrance. 

“Oh no,” Waverly breathed as she got out of the car. Nedley got out of his car beside her and he shook his head.

‘It’s supposed to be for children,” he said almost mournfully.

There was loud, scary orchestral music playing that almost drowned out the sounds of kids crying. Behind the graveyard were wooden boards nailed up and painted black, plastic spikes along the edge of the maze with fake bodies skewered onto them and a grotesque amount of blood poured down the side and pooled on the ground. There were fog machines everywhere, the chemical fog crawling across the ground through the gravestones and towards the entrance with strobe lights flashing up into the sky from inside the maze. 

There were thick black shreds of cloth covering the entrance, and Waverly could only imagine what horrors lay beyond there.

“We gotta stop ‘em,” Nedley said with a shake of his head. 

Waverly sighed. “Alright, just make sure no one else goes in. I'm going to go see how this happened.”

Waverly rushed up to the entrance, fear gripping her as she touched the cloth in front of the entrance. It’s fine, she told herself, it was fake. Her own girlfriend and sister made this with a child plucked from the eighties. There was no way it would be _that_ scary...right?

Setting her shoulders with determination, Waverly pushed through the cloth. She couldn’t see through the thick fog in the maze and instantly there was a blood curdling scream, a large animatronic spider with a head the size of Waverly’s popped out of the thick fog and made her jump.

“Shitballs!” Waverly said, batting at the legs of the hairy, robotic beast. She moved on to the next room where she was blinded by a strobe light. Through the flashes, she thought she could see someone in a corner, but every time there was a new flash of light she doubted it. Waverly held her hands in front of her as she tried to walk towards what she assumed was the exit until a ghoulish face popped up in front of her and she screamed again. 

“Hey, Waves,” Rachel laughed, face still odd and disturbing in the flashing strobe.

“Rachel!” Waverly grabbed her by the elbow and she frowned.

“Ow!”

“You’re explaining yourself,” Waverly said as she pulled her into the little dark hall after the strobe room. Something light and creepy touched Waverly’s face and she batted her hands in front of her face on instinct, but she kept feeling the cold, feather light touch all over her. “What is that?”

“Fishing line,” Rachel said, smile in her voice even in the dark. “Isn’t it awesome?”

“No!” Waverly pulled her into the next room that she assumed was supposed to be a basement looking room, dirty gurney covered in blood and grime in the middle of the room. There was a shower curtain set up in the corner and Rachel chuckled.

“This is my favorite part.”

Suddenly the shower curtain burst open and Wynonna jumped out from behind it towards Waverly. She had blood caked all over her face and down her body, particularly around the plastic baby doll that was cut in half and sticking out of her belly so that it looked like the baby was crawling out of her pregnant belly. 

It was obscene, the fake guts and blood slathered around the fake baby as Wynonna screamed, definitely overacting as she reached for Waverly.

“Help me!” she gasped dramatically, clutching at her stomach. “My baby is evil!”

“Stop it, Wynonna,” Waverly folded her arms with a hard frown. “This is _not_ funny.”

Just then from the other room, a figure burst out with a bloody chainsaw raised over their head, hockey mask over their face and a thick apron covered in blood. Waverly screamed again, acting on instinct at the tall figure suddenly in her face and punched them square in the mask.

“Ow!” came a familiar muffled voice just as her fist connected. She reached for Wynonna, who was doubled over in laughter. The figure paused, chainsaw dropping to their side as they lifted the mask. Nicole’s face, sweaty and a little confused but happy, smiled back at her. Waverly winced at the bruise already forming on her jaw.

“Hey, baby!” Nicole beamed. “How do you like the house? And why did you hit me?”

Waverly gasped at her. “Nicole! This is terrifying! This maze was supposed to be for kids!”

“Yeah, Rachel is a kid. She helped with it,” Nicole shrugged. “Isn’t this what Halloween is? Scaring people?”

“No! Well - yes, technically,” Waverly ran a frustrated hand through her hair. “This was supposed to be for _little_ kids. Babies who don’t like to be scared. Not teenagers who throw themselves off of tall objects just to kill boredom!”

“That’s only on Boxing Day,” Wynonna snorted, shaking her head in disbelief.

Waverly shot her a look. “It’s you I’m mad at, Wynonna. You know better.”

“Oh come on,” Wynonna said. “This isn’t that scary.”

“Rachel is dressed like a-!” Waverly looked at Rachel’s bruised and bloodied face, ripped clothing.

“Zombie,” Rachel provided.

“Zombie!” Waverly said. “How is this child appropriate?!” She looked at Nicole again and noticed her white tshirt with rolled up sleeves and blue jeans, both splattered with blood. But at least Waverly could see the lean lines of Nicole’s biceps when she held the chainsaw. “And what happened to your costume!”

“Wynonna said it was lame and wouldn’t fit with the theme,” Nicole shrugged. Her eyes darted down Waverly’s costume and she smirked. “I like your costume, baby.”

“Thank you,” Waverly smiled flirtily back, anger gone for a moment. “I thought you might.”

“Are you dressed as Tink?”

“Well, technically a fairy,” Waverly trailed off.

“You’re the sexiest fairy I’ve ever seen,” Nicole’s voice lowered and she pulled Waverly flush against her. Waverly let herself get lost in it for a moment before she pushed Nicole away again.

“You’re covered in fake blood!”

“Ugh, okay, this display is more horrifying than anything _we_ did,” Wynonna muttered.

“Come on, you all have to apologize to Nedley,” Waverly sighed. 

“Why? This is awesome!” Rachel said.

“Not to the crying children outside,” Waverly said, marching them all back to the front of the maze where Nedley was standing. To Waverly’s surprise, there was a line about fifteen people deep, mostly teenagers and adults, all waiting to get in.

“The teenagers came,” Nedley sighed. “Teenagers are the worst on Halloween. Here I was hoping to just have a quiet Halloween with nice little kids. They don’t ask rude questions.”

Waverly felt Nicole close behind her and she smiled up at Nedley. “Everyone is very sorry, Nedley,” she said. “There was obviously a...misunderstanding-”

Nedley scoffed.

“-but! What if we charged a little for admission to the people who _do_ want to be scared out of their wits, and donate that to the Purgatory Youth Center instead?”

Nedley’s mustache twitched and he looked up at the growing line. “I suppose...this is already here.”

“And it’s awesome,” Wynonna interjected. Nedley looked down at the fake baby crawling out of her stomach and he muttered something under his breath. 

“Fine,” Nedley said. “Just make sure no one causes any trouble.” With that, Nedley gave one last look at the entrance. “I’ll make sure people know there’s a...minimum age.” He walked back towards the road where folks were still driving up, and Waverly heard Nicole and Wynonna high five behind her.

She spun back around to look at them and they froze, fear on their face as they waited for her to keep yelling at them. She pointed a finger at all three of them. 

“You’re lucky that this worked out,” she said before smiling lightly. “You epically failed a simple task but...somehow made it more awesome.”

“Maybe we can do this next year too,” Rachel said hopefully.

“Nicole, is that spider in the first room the one you stabbed?” Waverly asked, almost afraid to know the answer.

“Yeah, we got a discount,” Nicole beamed. 

Waverly shook her head affectionately and rubbed a smudge of fake blood off of Nicole’s nose, fingers brushing lightly over her bruised jaw. “I’m sorry that I hit you.”

“It’s okay,” Nicole smiled, hand not holding the chainsaw looping around Waverly’s waist and bringing her close. “It didn’t hurt that much.”

“I bruised my baby,” Waverly pouted, placing a light kiss on the affected area. 

“Just make it up to me later,” Nicole winked.

Waverly rolled her eyes playfully and shook her head. “Alright, well, go scare the shit out of people I guess.”

Rachel and Wynonna want back into the maze, talking excitedly between them. Nicole stayed behind and leaned down to peck Waverly’s lips. 

“Have I mentioned I love your costume?” Nicole whispered against her lips. “I can’t wait to rip it off of you.”

Waverly hummed, biting her bottom lip and tugging on the strap of Nicole’s apron. “I was hoping that’s how you’d feel. After the scaring though.”

“Okay, fine,” Nicole kissed her one last time and pulled the mask back down over her face. She winked at Waverly from behind the mask and pulled the cord of the chainsaw, letting it roar to life. Some of the people in the line screamed and Nicole jumped out at them, bringing the chainsaw close to them but not touching them. Not that it would hurt anyone with the chain gone like Waverly now saw. She shook her head, smiling affectionately as she watched Nicole jump at another unsuspecting group of teenagers so they scattered.

As Nicole ran back into the maze, Waverly heard her laughing in enjoyment and sighed. Wynonna had created a monster. A macabre monster. Waverly put on her best customer service smile and looked at the first person in line, fear and glee on their faces. 

“Hello! Three dollars for entrance please, all donations go to charity.”

**Author's Note:**

> [Come yell at me on Twitter if you're so inclined.](https://twitter.com/bootsncatz)


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